Ebbsfleet Landmark | The Guardianhttps://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/ebbsfleet-landmark
Latest news and features from theguardian.com, the world's leading liberal voiceen-gbGuardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. 2017Tue, 26 Sep 2017 22:48:09 GMT2017-09-26T22:48:09Zen-gbGuardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. 2017The Guardianhttps://assets.guim.co.uk/images/guardian-logo-rss.c45beb1bafa34b347ac333af2e6fe23f.pnghttps://www.theguardian.com
Britain’s housing crisis: are garden cities the answer?https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/oct/01/britains-housing-crisis-are-gaden-cities-the-answer-ebbsfleet-kent-green-belt
They’re billed as an idyllic alternative to generic commuter towns. But the first of a new generation of garden cities, in Ebbsfleet, Kent, has run into controversy. Will the end result be bog-standard suburban housing blighting the green belt?<p>Beyond the shops – a Co-op, a cafe, a tattoo studio called Demon Inkorporation – are narrow terraced streets where doors open on to the pavement. A newer red-brick estate has been erected on an old slurry pit, and in the distance are wind turbines, pylons, the roar of the A2 and the surreal sight of container ships the size of tower blocks slipping down the Thames.</p><p>Welcome to Britain’s newest garden city. Ebbsfleet, the name of the high-speed Eurostar railway station squeezed on to waste ground between Dartford and Gravesend, is the first of the government’s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebbsfleet_Valley">new generation of garden cities</a>: low-density communities with generous green spaces and good local facilities. Garden cities are an idea whose time has come (again), enjoying the support of George Osborne, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg. They are seen as a way to persuade not-in-my-backyarders to tolerate urgently needed new housing estates. Are garden cities the solution to Britain’s housing crisis? Or are they a sham – the same-old suburbs smothering precious green belt?</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/oct/01/britains-housing-crisis-are-gaden-cities-the-answer-ebbsfleet-kent-green-belt">Continue reading...</a>Planning policyHousingEbbsfleet LandmarkCommunitiesSocietyHousing marketReal estateBusinessPoliticsGarden citiesCitiesWed, 01 Oct 2014 17:57:40 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/oct/01/britains-housing-crisis-are-gaden-cities-the-answer-ebbsfleet-kent-green-beltPhotograph: Commission Air LtdAeiral view of Ebbsfleet showing the quarry and valley devlopments with Swanscombe to the rear – and London in the distance at top left. Photograph: Commission Air LtdPhotograph: Commission Air LtdAeiral view of Ebbsfleet showing the quarry and valley devlopments with Swanscombe to the rear – and London in the distance at top left. Photograph: Commission Air LtdPatrick Barkham2014-10-01T17:57:40Z'Angel of the south', with wings clipped, lands in London amid financial stormhttps://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/mar/05/angel-south-london-mark-wallinger-ebbsfleet
Mark Wallinger's giant horse sculpture intended for Ebbsfleet is unveiled as monument in miniature outside British Council<p>It was meant to be the 50-metre-tall "angel of the south": a stupendous white horse towering over redeveloped land in Kent. But Mark Wallinger's wildly ambitious sculpture has been delayed repeatedly because of a lack of money. And now the artist has unveiled a more modest version, which will stand in central London for at least two years.</p><p>Wallinger's new white horse, which this time is merely horse-sized, was installed on the Mall outside the headquarters of the organisation that commissioned it, the <a href="http://www.britishcouncil.org/" title="">British Council</a>.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/mar/05/angel-south-london-mark-wallinger-ebbsfleet">Continue reading...</a>Mark WallingerEbbsfleet LandmarkSculptureAntony GormleyLondonArtArt and designUK newsTue, 05 Mar 2013 15:19:23 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/mar/05/angel-south-london-mark-wallinger-ebbsfleetPhotograph: David LeveneHolding his horse: Mark Wallinger on the Mall. Photograph: David LevenePhotograph: David LeveneHolding his horse: Mark Wallinger on the Mall. Photograph: David LeveneMark Brown, arts correspondent2013-03-05T15:19:23ZThe fate of Wallinger's horse shows why public art cannot be good arthttps://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2011/jul/05/public-art-cannot-be-good-art
Mark Wallinger's Ebbsfleet Landmark commission has been reined in. That's because modern British public art only values the mediocre<p>The trouble with public art is that it is a load of ugly, pompous, pretentious and narcissistic rubbish dumped on a snoozing public by arrogant bureaucrats and sponsors ... Sorry, leapt to the point a bit fast there, let's rewind.</p><p>The trouble with public art is that it requires a set of skills in an artist that are precisely the opposite of the qualities that attend true talent. Real artists only care about their work. They enjoy having wild ideas, creating unexpected images, testing taste and goading imagination. Real art is unpredictable, and a bit mad. It does not fit into readymade boxes – the entire point of it is to leap beyond expectations, to think the unthought. The function of the artist in western history is to create the new. From <a href="http://www.webexhibits.org/colorart/i/michelangelo-creation-adam-.jpg" title="Michelangelo">Michelangelo</a> to <a href="http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/cubism/images/PabloPicasso-Weeping-Woman-with-Handkerchief-1937.jpg" title="Picasso">Picasso</a>, artists have shown people new possibilities.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2011/jul/05/public-art-cannot-be-good-art">Continue reading...</a>Mark WallingerEbbsfleet LandmarkArtArt and designInstallationTue, 05 Jul 2011 14:56:03 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2011/jul/05/public-art-cannot-be-good-artPhotograph: Graham Turner/GuardianWoa there ... Mark Wallinger with a model of his Ebbsfleet sculpture. Photograph: Graham Turner for the GuardianPhotograph: Graham Turner/GuardianWoa there ... Mark Wallinger with a model of his Ebbsfleet sculpture. Photograph: Graham Turner for the GuardianJonathan Jones2011-07-05T14:56:03ZLeonardo da Vinci's unmade Horse – the first conceptual artwork?https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2011/may/17/leonardo-da-vinci-horse-statue
Da Vinci's towering bronze equestrian statue epitomises the artist's uniqueness – even though hard times meant it was never made<p>It is a bad time to be making a giant horse. But are there ever any good times? Artist <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-08/wallinger-s-horse-statue-stalled-as-cost-soars-fivefold-to-15-8-million.html" title="Mark Wallinger and his funders face a struggle to pay">Mark Wallinger and his funders face a struggle to pay</a> for the colossal statue of a white horse that he has been <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/feb/10/ebbsfleet-landmark-mark-wallinger-horse" title="">commissioned to create as a public artwork at Ebbsfleet</a>. The idea was hugely popular when he won a competition for the job, and yet in these times ... well, it's a slog to get the cash. But as I say – has there ever been an opportune moment to make a giant horse?</p><p>"I know what the times are like ..." wrote Leonardo da Vinci to his employer <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ludovico-Sforza-1495.jpg" title="Ludovico Sforza">Ludovico Sforza</a>, ruler of Milan, in the 1490s. He was wanly conceding that money for the Horse might not be forthcoming. The Horse – Da Vinci's horse – was a towering equestrian monument that he planned to cast in bronze as a memorial to Ludovico's father, Francesco Sforza. It was one of the projects he proposed to take on when he first <a href="http://www.yuricareport.com/Institute/DaVinciLetter.html" title="asked Ludovico for work">asked Ludovico for work</a> in the early 1480s. It became perhaps the most famous of all his activities in Milan, alongside his other epic work in the city, <a href="http://www.remnantsongs.com/Leonardo_da_Vinci_the_last_supper.jpg" title="The Last Supper">The Last Supper</a>. But when he finally abandoned the defeated Sforza and fled Milan at the end of the 15th century he left behind only a grandiose clay model of the horse. It is said that French archers used it for target practice.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2011/may/17/leonardo-da-vinci-horse-statue">Continue reading...</a>Leonardo da VinciPaintingSculptureArtEbbsfleet LandmarkArt and designCultureTue, 17 May 2011 11:31:22 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2011/may/17/leonardo-da-vinci-horse-statuePhotograph: Antonio Calanni/APEquestrian of cash ... Leonardo's Horse statue, an imagined version of which stands in Milan's Cultural Park, was never actually made. Photograph: Antonio Calanni/APPhotograph: Antonio Calanni/APEquestrian of cash ... Leonardo's Horse statue, an imagined version of which stands in Milan's Cultural Park, was never actually made. Photograph: Antonio Calanni/APJonathan Jones2011-05-17T11:31:22ZThe Ebbsfleet Landmark and other animalshttps://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2009/feb/11/ebbsfleet-landmark-sculpture
As Mark Wallinger wins the commission for his 50-metre tall horse at Ebbsfleet International station in Kent, we ponder on the other animals that would make suitable sculptures for different areas of Britain and Ireland <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2009/feb/11/ebbsfleet-landmark-sculpture">Continue reading...</a>Ebbsfleet LandmarkArt and designArtCultureUK newsThu, 12 Feb 2009 10:35:10 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2009/feb/11/ebbsfleet-landmark-sculpturePhotograph: Andrew Brown/CorbisThe Badger of Bodmin, Bodmin Moor. Photograph: Andrew Brown/CorbisPhotograph: Andrew Brown/CorbisThe Badger of Bodmin, Bodmin Moor. Photograph: Andrew Brown/CorbisGuardian Staff2009-02-12T10:35:10ZJilly Cooper describes her delight at the thought of Mark Wallinger's 50m-high horsehttps://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/feb/12/ebbsfleet-landmark-art-jilly-cooper
Jilly Cooper is thrilled by the thought of Mark Wallinger's 50m-high horse<p>I adore horses. They are such brave animals. Kings and emperors have always carved out their empires on horseback because horses are so heroic. In the first world war, eight million of them died fighting for their country. White ones have always been symbolic. Poseidon's horse Pegasus was white and he was a symbol of poetry and aspiration. It feels as though we are honouring all kinds of things with this [sculpture of a white horse by artist Mark Wallinger] - poetry and war, love and romance, courage and loyalty.</p><p>It could have been a dog, too, I suppose - we are a nation of dog lovers after all, but a dog would be miserable being left in a field all day and night. It would look out of place. The horse is perfectly in keeping with our green and pleasant lands.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/feb/12/ebbsfleet-landmark-art-jilly-cooper">Continue reading...</a>Mark WallingerEbbsfleet LandmarkArtArt and designCultureJilly CooperThu, 12 Feb 2009 00:01:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/feb/12/ebbsfleet-landmark-art-jilly-cooperPhotograph: PRStallion of the south: Mark Wallinger's horse has won the Ebbsfleet Landmark public art commissionPhotograph: PRStallion of the south: Mark Wallinger's horse has won the Ebbsfleet Landmark public art commissionInterview by Nicole Jackson2009-02-12T00:01:00ZMaev Kennedy on the plan for a massive horse sculpture at Ebbsfleethttps://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/audio/2009/feb/11/stallion-of-the-south-ebbsfleet
Maev Kennedy on the plan for a massive horse sculpture at Ebbsfleet <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/audio/2009/feb/11/stallion-of-the-south-ebbsfleet">Continue reading...</a>Ebbsfleet LandmarkArtArt and designCultureUK newsSculptureWed, 11 Feb 2009 10:00:24 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/audio/2009/feb/11/stallion-of-the-south-ebbsfleetPhotograph: Mark Wallinger/PAAn artist's impression of how Mark Wallinger's The Horse will appear near Ebbsfleet in Kent. Photograph: Mark Wallinger/PAPhotograph: Mark Wallinger/PAAn artist's impression of how Mark Wallinger's The Horse will appear near Ebbsfleet in Kent. Photograph: Mark Wallinger/PAMaev Kennedy2009-02-11T10:00:24ZThe horse whisperer's verdict of Wallinger's sculpture: 'This man is a genius - there's no question about it'https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/feb/11/sculpture-wallinger-horse-whisperer
The horse whisperer speaks<p>Monty Roberts, the American horse trainer and author, best known as the "original horse whisperer", has been around the animals all of his 73 years but has never seen one 50 metres tall. A computerised impression of Mark Wallinger's giant sculpture drew a gasp. "I'm absolutely gobsmacked," he said. </p><p>The former stunt double, who, after watching wild mustangs in Nevada as a boy, devised ways of communicating with horses that did not involve forcibly "breaking them in", is not just wowed by the scale of the proposed sculpture. "This man is a genius, there's no question about it. There's an incredible sense of balance and symmetry to the horse. I don't know if he even knows what he's done in terms of the skeletal balance and symmetry of the horse - he may well do. But often times sculptors ... simply have a mind's eye that recreates what they see as perfection. [Wallinger] has captured reality to the extreme. Often times it doesn't have to a person who really understands horses at all but they have the artistry to imprint in their minds what they see as excellence, and then to do it." </p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/feb/11/sculpture-wallinger-horse-whisperer">Continue reading...</a>Mark WallingerEbbsfleet LandmarkArtArt and designCommunitiesSocietyCultureUK newsSculptureWed, 11 Feb 2009 00:01:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/feb/11/sculpture-wallinger-horse-whispererPhotograph: PRMonty Roberts, the horse whisperer. Photograph: PRPhotograph: PRMonty Roberts, the horse whisperer. Photograph: PRPeter Walker2009-02-11T00:01:00ZOdds-on favourite romps home to win Angel of the South landmark contesthttps://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/feb/11/sculpture-mark-wallinger-horse
• Sculpture is brainchild of Turner prize winner<br />• 50-metre design is dubbed the Angel of the South<p>A giant white horse will rise on a wind-scoured hillock in Kent, gazing with an expression of noble patience towards the Thames estuary, over a bleak landscape of motorways and rail lines, flooded gravel pits, chimneys and pylons, and even a few living horses muddy in their waterlogged fields. Probably.</p><p>The Turner prize winning artist Mark Wallinger, odds-on favourite from the moment his design for a 50 metre (164ft) white horse was unveiled, was yesterday proclaimed winner of the competition to create a landmark sculpture for Ebbsfleet taller than the Angel of the North - and so inevitably dubbed the Angel of the South.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/feb/11/sculpture-mark-wallinger-horse">Continue reading...</a>Mark WallingerEbbsfleet LandmarkArtArt and designCultureCommunitiesSocietyUK newsSculptureWed, 11 Feb 2009 00:01:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/feb/11/sculpture-mark-wallinger-horsePhotograph: Gareth Fuller/PAArtist Mark Wallinger with his winning design for the Ebbsfleet Landmark Project. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PAPhotograph: Gareth Fuller/PAArtist Mark Wallinger with his winning design for the Ebbsfleet Landmark Project. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PAMaev Kennedy2009-02-11T00:01:00ZMark Wallinger's giant white horse for Ebbsfleet - a white elephant in disguise?https://www.theguardian.com/culture/charlottehigginsblog/2009/feb/10/1
Mark Wallinger's 33-times life-size white horse has been selected as the Ebbsfleet Landmark in Kent. But is now the time to be building extravagant public sculpture?<p>It's a great week for Mark Wallinger. Not only does his fascinating and clever-sounding exhibition at the Hayward Gallery in London open next week (it's called the Russian Linesman, it features a magnificent disappearing Tardis, and I wrote about it <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2008/dec/16/art-mark-wallinger-hayward-gallery">here</a>), but this morning it was announced that his <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2008/may/08/art.news">proposal</a> for the <a href="http://www.ebbsfleetlandmark.com/">Ebbsfleet Landmark</a>, a major public sculpture for Kent overlooking the A2 and Ebbsfleet International train station, has been selected as the winning design from a final shortlist of submissions.</p><p>His proposal is that a giant, lifelike white horse – 50 metres high, twice as tall as the Angel of the North – should bestride Ebbsfleet valley, at a cost of £2m. I rather like the idea for its sheer brilliant effrontery, but it does faintly run the risk of simply looking rather naff (one critic of the proposal is Adrian Searle, an admirer of Wallinger's work in the main, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2008/may/07/art2">who has called it "silly"</a>.)</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/charlottehigginsblog/2009/feb/10/1">Continue reading...</a>Mark WallingerCultureArt and designEbbsfleet LandmarkTue, 10 Feb 2009 12:28:44 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/culture/charlottehigginsblog/2009/feb/10/1Charlotte Higgins2009-02-10T12:28:44ZJonathan Jones: Wallinger's Ebbsfleet horse is a great piece of public arthttps://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2009/feb/10/ebbsfleet-landmark-mark-wallinger-horse
Mark Wallinger's winning commission for the Ebbsfleet Landmark is undoubtedly populist, but it's still art<p><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/feb/10/ebbsfleet-landmark-mark-wallinger-horse" title="">Mark Wallinger's giant statue of a white horse</a> has rightly and inevitably been chosen to become the most spectacular open air work of contemporary art in southern England. It was the popular choice for the Ebbsfleet Landmark Project from the moment the shortlist for this £2m public art commission was announced last spring, capturing imaginations much more than its rivals. Any other choice would have seemed perverse - after all, public art is the people's art, and the people definitely see more in this horse than in <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2008/may/08/art.culture" title="">Rachel Whiteread's trashpile with a cast of a house on top of it</a>. So do I.</p><p>On the other hand, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2008/may/10/art.design" title="">since praising Wallinger's piece</a> in a Guardian article after the initial shortlisting, quite a few art lovers have expressed their reserve about it. The most common objection is that it lacks "texture" and mystery, in other words that it is not abstract or poetic enough. One person who disagreed with my enthusiasm pointed out that it's not as good as a work by Richard Serra. Well ... no one can accuse Serra of popular image-making. A public work by him outside Liverpool Street Station goes woefully unappreciated. There is an art to making accessible images, and this art is not worthless. I revere Serra's works in the Bilbao Guggenheim, but I have to honestly confess that I find the flowery dog by Jeff Koons outside that museum just as memorable.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2009/feb/10/ebbsfleet-landmark-mark-wallinger-horse">Continue reading...</a>Mark WallingerEbbsfleet LandmarkArtArt and designCultureCommunitiesTue, 10 Feb 2009 12:26:25 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2009/feb/10/ebbsfleet-landmark-mark-wallinger-horsePhotograph: Gareth Fuller/PAPutting the art before the horse ... Mark Wallinger with his winning design for the Ebbsfleet Landmark Project. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PAPhotograph: Gareth Fuller/PAPutting the art before the horse ... Mark Wallinger with his winning design for the Ebbsfleet Landmark Project. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PAJonathan Jones2009-02-10T12:26:25ZMark Wallinger's horse wins the Ebbsfleet Landmark commissionhttps://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/feb/10/ebbsfleet-landmark-mark-wallinger-horse
<p>Mark Wallinger's giant white horse has been announced today as the winner of the £2m public art commission nicknamed the "Angel of the South", intended to mark the building of Ebbsfleet International station in north Kent.</p><p>Wallinger's design was selected from a three-strong shortlist for the Ebbsfleet Landmark Project, ahead of Richard Deacon's steel latticework nest and Daniel Buren's tower of stacked cubes.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/feb/10/ebbsfleet-landmark-mark-wallinger-horse">Continue reading...</a>Mark WallingerEbbsfleet LandmarkArt and designArtCultureUK newsCommunitiesRichard DeaconTue, 10 Feb 2009 11:59:59 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/feb/10/ebbsfleet-landmark-mark-wallinger-horsePhotograph: Gareth&#32;Fuller/PAMark Wallinger with his winning design for the Ebbsfleet Landmark Project. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PAPhotograph: Gareth&#32;Fuller/PAMark Wallinger with his winning design for the Ebbsfleet Landmark Project. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PANosheen Iqbal and agencies2009-02-10T11:59:59ZGiant horse, steel nest and stacked cubes make Ebbsfleet shortlisthttps://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2008/oct/01/art.ebbsfleet
<p>Three proposals for the Ebbsfleet Landmark, a £2m public art commission in Kent, have been selected for further development, it was announced yesterday. </p><p>Designs by two former Turner prizewinners, Richard Deacon and Mark Wallinger, and French abstractionist Daniel Buren, have been chosen from the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/culture/gallery/2008/may/07/ebbsfleetlandmark?picture=333981526">shortlist of five</a> unveiled earlier this year. Proposals by Rachel Whiteread, who wanted to create what she described as a "fairytale mountain" featuring a cast of the house where she grew up, and Christopher Le Brun's giant concrete wing and disc, have been rejected.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2008/oct/01/art.ebbsfleet">Continue reading...</a>ArtArt and designCultureEbbsfleet LandmarkWed, 01 Oct 2008 11:46:38 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2008/oct/01/art.ebbsfleetPhotograph: PRNagging feeling ... Mark Wallinger's shortlisted proposal for the Ebbsfleet LandmarkPhotograph: PRNagging feeling ... Mark Wallinger's shortlisted proposal for the Ebbsfleet LandmarkOginia O'Dell2008-10-01T11:46:38ZSteve Bell's If ... Ebbsfleet is bornhttps://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/cartoon/2008/may/14/if.ebbsfleet.stevebell
<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/cartoon/2008/may/14/if.ebbsfleet.stevebell">Continue reading...</a>Ebbsfleet LandmarkTue, 13 May 2008 23:00:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/cartoon/2008/may/14/if.ebbsfleet.stevebellSteve Bell2008-05-13T23:00:00ZArt in public spaces should be decided by the peoplehttps://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/artblog/2008/may/11/artinpublicspacesshouldbe
Communication between commissioners and the public will make for better art, and the Ebbsfleet project will benefit from it<p><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/artsforall/0,,607765,00.html">Art in public spaces</a> really gets the juices flowing: informed <a href="http://blogs.theguardian.com/art/2008/03/are_art_critics_irrelevant.html">critical</a> juices, deeply felt uncritical ones, preciously held sheer prejudice. What matters is that the presence of <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/6530989.stm">a work of art in a public space</a> - "our" space, "free" space perhaps - invites a feeling of ownership, of involvement of a very direct kind.</p><p>Despite the huge numbers who visit galleries and museums, most people don't go. If they do, the convention of the art gallery is that the work is entitled to be there and your right to question it is correspondingly limited. But <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/artsforall/story/0,,613931,00.html">in the street where you live, the supermarket where you shop, the square where you sit</a>, you have a right to state an opinion.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/artblog/2008/may/11/artinpublicspacesshouldbe">Continue reading...</a>ArtCultureCommunitiesSocietyArt and designEbbsfleet LandmarkSat, 10 May 2008 23:11:07 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/artblog/2008/may/11/artinpublicspacesshouldbeJohn Tusa2008-05-10T23:11:07ZJonathan Jones: Five proposals unveiled for the 'Angel of the South' sculpture, but one contender stands outhttps://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2008/may/10/art.design
This week five proposals were unveiled for the giant 'Angel of the South' sculpture. But one contender stands head and shoulders above the rest, writes a leading art critic<p>The big green circle is an eye, you suddenly realise as you balance among the gorse on a hilltop high above Yorkshire. This close, the shape cut into the hillside is almost unreadable, just a vast tract of white stone until you pick out that eye, a circle of turf in the chalky space, and then recognise two ears, a long nose ... Once you have identified its face the giant horse takes shape in your mind as if superimposed on the landscape, as if you were floating in the sky over the fields, villages and church spires below.</p><p>In 1857 a village schoolteacher from the hamlet of Kilburn on the edge of the North York Moors had the idea of carving this colossal white horse. He was inspired by the white horses of southern England, which are cut out of the turf into chalk hills, but the rock here is limestone, so the teacher and his pupils had to give their horse a white chalk covering. Today only a few fragments of brilliant chalk remain among the loose white scree of the horse's surface. And yet, when I'm looking into that green eye, it's as if I can see into a tunnel down the millennia.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2008/may/10/art.design">Continue reading...</a>Ebbsfleet LandmarkArtCultureDesignArchitectureArt and designSat, 10 May 2008 00:54:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2008/may/10/art.designJonathan Jones2008-05-10T00:54:00ZRachel Whiteread on her Ebbsfleet Landmark proposalhttps://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2008/may/08/art.culture
Rachel Whiteread grew up near the site for the planned 'Angel of the South'. She explains how its industrial expanses have inspired her life's work<p>I have always found this part of the country a really interesting, ugly-beautiful landscape. Places like the Dagenham Ford Works I remember clearly from driving though the area with my father as a child. To me, the Ebbsfleet valley is the closest thing we have to America in this country, in terms of industrial landscape - this long flat expanse with buildings that merge into the distance. It's a place I can really relate to.</p><p>I'm interested in looking at how places such as Bluewater shopping centre, which is like a spaceship that has landed in this area, relate to the landscape. You've got white craggy chalk faces, which aren't dissimilar to the Seven Sisters in Sussex, or the White Cliffs of Dover. You've also got the movement of vast quantities of material for the construction of new spaces and dwellings, as well as the old cement works.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2008/may/08/art.culture">Continue reading...</a>ArtCultureCommunitiesSocietyArt and designEbbsfleet LandmarkRachel WhitereadThu, 08 May 2008 08:40:21 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2008/may/08/art.cultureRachel Whiteread2008-05-08T08:40:21ZWhat's the point of public art?https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/may/07/whatsthepointofpublicart
As plans for a colossal new sculpture at Ebbsfleet are unveiled, a panel meets to discuss whether public art really works. What do you think?<p><br>An artist's impression showing the possible scale of an art installation for Ebbsfleet Landmark Commission</p><p>"Is public art a waste of space?"</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/may/07/whatsthepointofpublicart">Continue reading...</a>Ebbsfleet LandmarkWed, 07 May 2008 16:00:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/may/07/whatsthepointofpublicartVox pop2008-05-07T16:00:00ZYour take on the Ebbsfleet Landmarkhttps://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/artblog/2008/may/07/yourtakeontheebbsfleetlan
The proposals for the Ebbsfleet Landmark sculpture have been revealed to the public today. What do you think of them?<p><br>High art ... Christopher Le Brun's disc and wing design for the Ebbsfield Landmark</p><p>The south's - all right, north Kent's - ambition to get an Angel of the North of its very own came a step closer today, when maquettes of five proposals for the Ebbsfleet Landmark (I know, boring title) were <a href="http://arts.theguardian.com/art/news/story/0,,2278347,00.html">unveiled to the press</a>. You can see our <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/culture/gallery/2008/may/07/ebbsfleetlandmark?picture=333981526">gallery of the shortlisted designs here</a>.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/artblog/2008/may/07/yourtakeontheebbsfleetlan">Continue reading...</a>ArtArt and designCultureEbbsfleet LandmarkWed, 07 May 2008 15:30:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/artblog/2008/may/07/yourtakeontheebbsfleetlanAndrew Dickson2008-05-07T15:30:00ZThe Ebbsfleet Landmark shortlisthttps://www.theguardian.com/culture/gallery/2008/may/07/ebbsfleetlandmark
<strong>May 7 2008:</strong> Today the five shortlisted artists reveal their designs for the Ebbsfleet site in north Kent. Each structure must be roughly 50 metres in height, which would be twice the size of the Angel of the North. The competition features three Turner prize winners: Richard Deacon, Rachel Whiteread, and last year's winner Mark Wallinger. French abstractionist Daniel Buren and Portsmouth-born sculptor Christopher Le Brun complete the shortlist. See their designs in our gallery <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/gallery/2008/may/07/ebbsfleetlandmark">Continue reading...</a>CultureArtCommunitiesSocietyArt and designEbbsfleet LandmarkRachel WhitereadRichard DeaconWed, 07 May 2008 09:59:38 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/culture/gallery/2008/may/07/ebbsfleetlandmarkPhotograph: PRHorse and art ... Mark Wallinger's shortlisted proposal for the Ebbsfleet LandmarkPhotograph: PRHorse and art ... Mark Wallinger's shortlisted proposal for the Ebbsfleet LandmarkGuardian Staff2008-05-07T09:59:38Z